Pharisaic Christianity

I believe that every now and then God leads us into the deserts of our lives to get our attention and to draw us closer to Him for a purpose.

You have to admit that we ask, seek, and knock more fervently when we find ourselves in that dry place to which God may lead us, as He did our Lord Jesus.

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For the past year I have been spending time in prayer and study to answer a question asked by my sister not so long ago, and that question was:

Do I think that the Christian church today resembles the early apostolic church?

My response at the time was a simple "no" with the addition of a slightly more definitive reason for my believing so.

"I believe that the same pharisaic spirit which oppressed the scribes, Pharisees, and lawyers of Jesus' time is alive and well and even thriving within the Christian church today".

I believe that far too many pastors, preachers, and teachers of the Christian church today continue in the legacy of their fore-fathers and continue to lay heavy and grievous burdens upon the solders of their flocks.

Burdens that they themselves could not then and can not now bear, yet demand everyone else bear.  Burdens that under God's Standard of Sinless Perfection (Jam 2:10-11) no man could ever bear in their fallen state (corrupted flesh),  Save Jesus Christ!

Why are we seeing and hearing that which our Lord clearly rebuked during His earthen ministry (which was geared ONLY for the lost sheep of the house of Israel) being preached and taught from Christian pulpits today?

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The Scriptures That Renewed My Mind!

No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.

And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish, but new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.

No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.

(Luk 5:36-39)  (Mat 9:16-17; Mar 2:21-22)

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The biblical precept of not gendering or mingling that which is not of its like and kind goes back to the beginning (Gen 1:11), continues through the ages (Lev 19:19; Deu 22:11) and continues right into the new covenant (2Cor 6:16).

Jesus is crystal clear that it is wrong to take a piece of the new garment of righteousness (covenant) to patch the old garment (covenant) because old and new are not of each other's like and kind. This is especially true of the old wine (covenant) and the of the new wine (covenant) that does not agree with the old.

Jesus' concern here is for the preservation of both the bottles (people/vessels) and the wines (covenants), both the old and the new, and Jesus has proclaimed that the only way to preserve both is to keep them separate.

The New Wine can not be put into old wine-skins, it must go into new vessels.

Even more importantly, as food for thought, Jesus makes the observation that those having drunk of the old wine first (the Jewish people), say that the old is better than the new!

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Pharisaic Kryptonite

It has been my personal experience that out off all of our new covenant scriptures none are more neglected by the ecclesia than 2 Corinthians chapter 3, and for good reason, it exposes the pharisaic spirit at work and destroys "Judaeo-Christian doctrine"!

The apostle begins the chapter declaring that the epistle of Christ ministered onto the Corinthian church by the apostles was written in the fleshy tables of their hearts by the spirit, not etched in tablets of stone or written on parchment with ink. Paul continues:

"And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." (2Co 3:4-6)

But if the ministration of death, written and engraved in stones (The Moral Law - The 10 Commandments), was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance which glory was to be done away, how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather (more) glorious?  (v7-8)

What many Christians fail to note is that albeit not one jot or tittle of the law had been changed by the new covenant the ministration of the law has changed in every way!

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Question:

Is it possible to violate the letter of the law and not commit a sin against the spirit of the law?

Yes!

Did Jesus not break the letter of the law when He worked (healed) on the Sabbath?

Did Jesus not break the letter of the law when he and His disciples picked and ate of the corn of the fields on the Sabbath?

When Jesus forgave the prostitute of her sins, were the Pharisees and the people who were looking to stone her to death not completely operating within the letter of the law?

And did Jesus not rebuke them?

You see, the ministration of letter of the written law kills but the ministration of the spirit of the law brings life.

Jesus never questioned the sin of Mary and she denied denied the charges not. The law clearly and specifically states that the penalty for adultery is death by stoning. Jesus knew it, Mary knew it, the Pharisees knew it, and all i n attendance knew it.

But Jesus pointed His finger at the world and said: Let He Who Is Without Sin Cast The First Stone! and He pointed His finger at Mary and said: Go and sin no more!

And Mary never committed that sin again!

Now was it the fear of God that caused Mary to repent? Was it the fear of being stoned to death under the law?

No!

It was the mercy, grace, and love shown to her by God Himself that caused her confession, repentance and subsequent salvation.

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You see Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

According to the new covenant, when we confess our sins (agree with God that we are sinners), and acknowledge our need for a Savior (because we can't possibly meet our God's standard of sinless perfection while we are in the flesh), and have faith in His finished work on the cross as our soul means of salvation, We Are Saved! Who WILL See The Glory of God?

THOSE WHO BELIEVE! (John 1:12),11:40)

(Heb 6:4)  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

(Heb 6:5)  And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

(Heb 6:6)  If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

No human being can live up to God's undeniable standard of sinless perfection, but then again we were never intended to. If you believe that God gave man one law to obey, something that he failed to do, then proceeded to give mankind 10 more laws to obey, which lasted a few hours at best, followed by 306 more laws which they MUST OBEY, every jot and or tittle of it, not knowing that this was impossible for man to accomplish, you do not understand God's plan for the redemption of man.

The entire purpose of the giving of the law was to show man/woman that the ONLY way to the Father was through His mercy and grace, which came to earth in the form of His only begotten Son, because the works of man simply fail to live up to God's standard of sinless perfection.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. (Mat 23:25-27)

What are you going to believe, the doctrines of men or the doctrines of Jesus Christ? Will you be led back to your own vomit or will you receive the way, truth and life which Jesus came into this world to offer every man and woman who receives Him and believes on His name?

Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me and ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.

  I receive not honor from men.

(Joh 5:39-41)

Be Blessed!